


Frivolous Words

by routa



Series: Yurileth Week 2020 by routa [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Character Study, Developing Relationship, Gender-Neutral My Unit | Byleth, Other, Yurileth Week (Fire Emblem)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:29:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24234337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/routa/pseuds/routa
Summary: A name was such a frivolous thing anyway. It didn’t really make a person who they were. Yuri should know. So why did he keep thinking about the moment he refused to tell his real name to Byleth?Written for Yurileth Week, for the prompts Name/Trust. Interpret Byleth's gender however you want.
Relationships: Yuris Leclair | Yuri Leclerc/My Unit | Byleth
Series: Yurileth Week 2020 by routa [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1753765
Kudos: 41





	Frivolous Words

**Author's Note:**

> I saw that Yurileth Week was a thing and figured why not? I haven't done prompt work in a while. I wrote this a bit rushed compared to my usual "edit a gazillion times and still don't be satisfied" -work, so I don't know... it might be even less competent than usually. And it's pretty stream of consciousness-ish to boot. Also am I going to use romantic prompts as a vessel for character study? Yes. Yes I am, because I fail at writing romance :D.

_“All this talk about names, and I still don’t know yours.”_

That statement – or question? – shouldn’t have repeated in Yuri’s head so many times in the few quieter nights he got during the war, when he sat at his desk and read through names in his notebook. And it shouldn’t have made him feel so complicated. A name was such a frivolous thing anyway, just a word to make addressing someone easier. It didn’t really make a person who they were. Yuri should know; he had had many names and played many roles over the years, but he was fairly confident that he was still just one person. Whoever that was.

And yet, people put so much stock in names. It was ridiculous, but it was also useful. It made them a powerful tool in the hands of someone with Yuri’s skillset. It was another thing he could use to get what he wanted, or what his people needed. To pave way into courts or into the bedchambers of nobles – and by extension, to their secrets and their favour. Or into a fancy military school – though that one hadn’t worked quite the way he had originally planned, what with him ending up as an underground lord to those who fell through the cracks, but he couldn’t deny he quite liked the outcome. It had been tough, but he hadn’t really encountered situations he wasn’t prepared for. At least not until the new professor stumbled their way into Abyss.

Byleth Eisner was a strange one. They reminded Yuri of fireflies, with the way they were always flitting about, but instead of light, they were drawn to people who needed help. They taught, they returned lost items, they protected, they fought, they talked - sometimes - and cast little sparks of hope everywhere they went.

It had been endearing from the start. Endearing, but it had also immediately put up Yuri’s walls of fake smiles and lies as well as easy, weaponised friendliness. If nothing else, Yuri’s life had taught him that people weren’t just _nice_. They always had an agenda, always wanted something. That was why Yuri always carried sharp objects even to the most innocent of encounters, why he gave people what they wanted to keep them from looking under the surface and find what was really there. Why he always, _always_ kept every sense open and alert in case of danger and focused on reading everyone he met to gauge their true intentions.

Byleth was hard to read, partially because of their quietness and partially because of their initially blank eyes and neutral expressions. It may have been just battle-hardened calm honed to perfection, or just severely stunted emotions. Later Yuri had learned that it was both, but in the beginning, it had put him on edge. So much so that he had been ready to pin Byleth against a wall and press a knife to their throat at any moment. He had hidden it under his smiles, of course, but he had a feeling that Byleth could see through them, and that was _not_ helping at all.

However, Yuri had never let discomfort get in the way of making a potentially powerful ally. And with getting to know Byleth came the realisation that Byleth was actually just like that. They were too… clueless? no, naïve, maybe, to be anything but sincere. That realisation had caused Yuri to stare at the worn ceiling stones in his dorm for way too many nights. Byleth was intelligent, sure, and on the battlefield they were deadly and clever, but outside they were almost ridiculously simple. They helped because they wanted to. They spent time with people because they _liked smiles_. They listened to people talking about feelings in awe because they honestly found them fascinating and wondrous.

If possible, it put Yuri even more on edge. And yet… when Byleth had asked to help him and started to spend more time with Yuri, Yuri hadn’t said no. And it was not just because Byleth was a person he wanted on his side rather than not. It was partially because Yuri was fascinated, and partially because he had absolutely no idea what to do with the knowledge that Byleth was actually a ridiculously genuine person. A complete sweetheart with the stony face of a killer. It made Yuri feel things he rarely felt. Things like hope and trust. And the desire to be himself around someone.

Trust. What a strange thing.

It wasn’t that Yuri was completely averse to trusting. He trusted his friends in the Ashen Wolves, and he was definitely not opposed to people trusting _him_. He knew with some pride that the people of Abyss trusted him even when he gave them a fake name and fake smiles. Even when everything was going to hell and bandits tried to bust down their doors – and would have, had it not been for a few exasperated sighs from Hapi.

He also knew that Byleth trusted him with that hopeful kind of trust of theirs. It was a trust that could easily have been taken advantage of, but somehow Byleth negated most of those attempts with their ability to read people in the way fighters who had survived for a long time had to be proficient in. It was humbling to know that Byleth saw through Yuri’s smiles and still chose to give him even a little bit of their faith. And sure, when it came to battle, Yuri did know Byleth would always have his and everyone else’s back. Because that was what they did, what they saw as their responsibility. Yuri knew Byleth would jump in front of every weapon aimed at others if they just could. It made him feel… safe, even though Yuri could definitely take care of himself – and had, on some occasions, even protected Byleth in return.

Still, when Byleth had asked Yuri his real name, there was no way Yuri would have given it. It shouldn’t have been that hard to move on from that. Yuri hadn’t told _anyone_ here his real name. Normally, it was just what he did for safety, and because it was nobody’s business, really. And it wasn’t even that important what people called him. But somehow, Byleth’s words about his name still kept Yuri up at night when war didn’t, and it was all kinds of inconvenient. Stupid. Silly.

He reminded himself that while names were frivolous, they were also dangerous. And Yuri’s _real_ name was something given by his mother. It wasn’t something he would just hand out. Not to temporary, bought allies, who could sell it to anyone for the right price. Not to people who wanted to gasp it between sheets in some mockery of real affection. Not even to his rogues, who could get in trouble for having that sort of knowledge. And not to Byleth, who rose from professor to general during the war and was regarded with reverence similar to the Goddess herself. Not even when Yuri’s unfulfilled desire to pin them to a wall and threaten them morphed into an unfulfilled desire to pin them to a wall and do something else entirely. Not even when Byleth started blushing more in Yuri’s company and invite him for a spot of tea more and more often. Not even when Yuri started to tentatively divulge more real details about himself.

He was allergic to cats and dogs. He didn’t know his father. He liked sweet things. He genuinely thought Byleth was getting close to being his people. He wanted to help people who suffered from poverty. But he was still firmly Yuri Leclerc.

He was still Yuri when Byleth told him more things about themselves. Like how they didn’t feel like they should always be the one everyone came to with problems because Byleth didn’t feel capable of solving them all, but they wanted to anyway. Things like the fact that Byleth liked cats and dogs a lot and promised to pet them for Yuri if Yuri wanted. That Byleth also liked sweet things. That Byleth’s heart didn’t beat, but somehow it could still feel warm when someone smiled at them. Especially Yuri.

_“I still don’t know your name.”_

Yuri told Byleth that he wrote down the names of all his people who passed away. Not because the names themselves were important, but because the people behind them were. Byleth told him that Yuri was important too, but Yuri dismissed it. If he was important, then his name shouldn’t matter. After Yuri had given a flirtatious smile – one of many variants he had perfected over the years – and told Byleth that maybe someday, he would tell them, Byleth hadn’t asked again. And yet, the question lingered, and Yuri tried his best to make sense of it. Why had Byleth asked? Did they finally develop some kind of agenda? Or were they just curious? Or did they too want to whisper it to Yuri in secret, heated moments? It didn’t seem like Byleth, who was clearly uninterested in any of that business, and Yuri definitely didn’t want a meaningless tryst with Byleth anyway. And real affection? Did Yuri trust anyone enough to believe in that?

No. But maybe, if he somehow ever did, it would be because of Byleth, who occasionally told him that his dreams were admirable, and that he was a good person. That he was beautiful. He had heard people compliment him so many times. He took the compliments even as he secretly hated how the people praising him were only seeing him as a tool. A pretty thing to play with, or a powerful ally to hide behind. He always turned those plans against any fool who tried. But for some reason those words coming from Byleth made Yuri genuinely flustered. Because there was the sincerity again, and Yuri wasn’t used to hearing sincere compliments. He just didn’t know how to work with that. Even after all this time, all the times Byleth proved themselves to be exactly as real as they initially came across, Yuri couldn’t believe it.

Sometimes he cornered Byleth in a quiet moment, or got frustrated with Byleth’s insistent attempts to help him with too many things, and asked:

“What do you _want_ with me?”

Byleth was always either incredibly confused, or then just shrugged and said some variant of “nothing”. Yuri didn’t believe that.

Or did he?

This time, he stepped closer than before. Byleth didn’t flinch, scarcely blinked.

“I want to help,” Byleth said, and then, in a quieter voice, “I want to… spend time with you and to know you.”

It wasn’t the first time Yuri had heard that. Not even from Byleth. When Byleth said it, it was so… achingly real. Yuri stepped closer, so close that his lips almost touched Byleth’s, and said:

“That really it? Because I have a hard time believing that.”

“I…” Byleth hesitated, and it was so endearing it almost made Yuri feel sorry for making things awkward. Almost, “Working together is… nice. And I know that you can take care of yourself. But I’d… I want… I wish I could hold you. And make you happy.”

That was a new one. It wasn’t smooth. It wasn’t poetic. It was just… Byleth stumbling over words and thoughts they couldn’t get in order in their own head. All of a sudden, Byleth looked so confused, so vulnerable, like they were figuring something out about themselves just now. Yuri took a deep, shaky breath and tried very hard to sort out all the things that it made him feel.

“Oh,” he said. It was the last time he asked about that. But he kept thinking. A lot.

At one point Yuri noticed that he and Byleth spent as much time together as the war allowed. Little moments. Looks and chats over tea. The occasional falling asleep against each other when both of them had too much work. The brush of hands after a tense battle, where they both had been scared that they might lose one another. Longer talks about dreams and memories and things they might do together. Sometimes they talked about names, and Yuri had again smiled and told Byleth he might tell them one day, even though Byleth never asked anymore.

Yuri wasn’t sure when he and Byleth had got to be so at ease around each other, when he had stopped lying to Byleth as much as he lied to almost everyone else.

He wasn’t sure when he had become so comfortable that he could fall asleep with his head on Byleth’s lap and wake up feeling refreshed and not thinking he would be stabbed in his sleep.

When the war was finally over, Yuri figured that he could take a chance. Because they had just survived everything this continent could throw at them. If he could get through a war, he could get through a moment of baring his soul. Being the real him. So he acquired a ring and asked Byleth to meet him.

And yet, he framed the proposal as something along the lines of a business agreement, because that was the only way he could get through it without choking up on just how damn vulnerable he was. Byleth took their time to understand. Maybe on purpose. Maybe they were just that damn clueless.

And then, before accepting, Byleth asked him his name. And Yuri had to laugh at it all.

After all this time, _that_ was what they asked? The most frivolous and dangerous thing?

Except no, it wasn’t what Byleth really asked for.

What Byleth wanted was something… else. A name was just a word, but it was also a word that Yuri would only give if…

Yes. What the hell. For Byleth.

It was definitely not the first time Yuri had whispered in someone’s ear. Sometimes it had been secrets that could kill in the wrong hands, and sometimes it had been sweet nothings in bedrooms, in darkness or candlelight, in moments that made him feel sick and unloved. But this was different. Real and frightening, and his name was just a wisp on his lips and his lungs felt like they would betray him at any moment even as he put on his most confident smile.

But it was all worth it when he brought his lips very close to Byleth’s ear and told them. When he managed an uncertain smile and tried a breathless:

“Well, disappointed?” to lighten the mood. And Byleth wrapped strong arms around him, and Yuri felt safer than he ever had.

**Author's Note:**

> One of the great things about this pairing is that I've always seen Byleth as a very genuine person because they're so inept with feelings that they aren't even capable of deceiving very well, and I think it totally throws off Yuri, who's from a very deceptive world. So now they can both struggle emotionally together for different reasons. Yay!
> 
> Also if any he/him pronouns slipped in for Byleth, the reason is that I keep imagining Byleth as male because I always play Bylad (I like his expressions a lot more :)). I tried to quadruple-check everything to make sure they're neutral in this fic.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed and have a lovely day!


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